There was an article about a famous Goblin who had visited Gobeldegook the week before, an interview with the manager of Payne Inn about a meeting that was to be held in a few weeks with elven dignitaries, and a section with ads advertising services or asking for things. One was a short blurb asking if anyone had found a lost golden locket and another a paragraph detailing a bachelor's traits and what he was looking for in a love interest.

In another issue Harry found a long article about the history of fae being denied entrance to magical schools and announcing a meeting at Payne Inn at the end of the week to talk about petitioning the Wizengamot about the issue again. Harry found the article very interesting and wondered why elves and vampires and werewolves wouldn't be allowed entrance to Hogwarts. Hagrid was half giant and he'd been allowed to go to school.

Harry also found an article about how a wizard had been found out to be a werewolf and had lost his job at the Ministry and was now looking for work if anyone knew of work to be had, and an article about how three vampires had been run out of York on Sunday and were now staying at the Payne Inn until they could find a friendlier place to live. This newsletter was also asking for people to donate funds to bail a werewolf out of a Muggle jail in Harrogate.

Harry wondered if Bellamy wrote these articles or if his parents or someone else had. Most of them revolved around people needing help or being treated unfairly. Harry couldn't wait for the next issue to be delivered to him to see what news it held.

Harry folded up the newsletter that was asking for donations to buy books for the orphans and put it in his back pocket and then headed out for the day. After stocking shelves with heavy Hogwart's textbooks at Flourish and Blotts for several hours, Harry made a beeline for Barrow Books, deciding to skip lunch until he could talk to Barrow.

As he passed Payne Alley he turned his head to look down it, no longer afraid of who he might find staring back at him and hoping to spot Bellamy so he could thank him for getting books for Peverell's. He saw no one though so he kept going. Several children waved to Harry and greeted him from in front of the orphanage as he passed, and he stopped for a moment to give them each a knut so they could go to Tilly's and buy a piece of candy. They all ran screaming across the alley as soon as they had their coins and Harry continued on, finally making it to the used book store. Barrow had been watching from inside apparently because as soon as Harry opened the door and came in, Barrow said, "Awful nice of you to buy them candy."

Harry shrugged and Barrow stared at him as if he was still trying to figure Harry out. Harry pulled out the newsletter and handed it to Barrow, but he didn't take it.

"You said you didn't know who donated books to Peverell's," Harry said.

"You didn't tell Tilly who painted her shop front."

Harry and Barrow stared at each other. "I know it was Bellamy," Harry said.

"You know him?" Barrow asked.

"Not exactly," Harry said. "I met him is all."

"That boy doesn't come out from Payne Alley more'n once or twice a year."

Harry pretended to be looking at a book instead of telling him he'd gone down Payne Alley. He didn't know this man aside from the brief chat he'd had with him a few days before and didn't know if he would tell someone and cause him trouble in court. "Why doesn't he come out?" Harry asked instead.

"Shy," Barrow said. "Wary. Lived his whole life on that alley and his parents didn't send him to Hogwarts knowing he was getting turned into one of them near majority. They don't trust wizards."

"Hm." That was too bad, Harry thought, because he loved Hogwarts and hated to think of anyone missing out on going if they could have.

"Was that all you came in here to say, is that you knew the books came from here?" Barrow asked.

Harry put the book down he was looking through and looked up. "No," Harry said. "I want to know what needs to be done to your shop."

Barrow narrowed his eyes for a moment and then motioned to the front window, still cracked corner to corner. "Window is too broken for repair by charm. Been charmed one too many times. The whole place needs new paint inside and out, and four or five bookshelves need fixing."

"Do you have money to hire some of the older kids from Peverells to fix the shelves and paint?"

"I might. Got no money for paint or a window though."

Harry walked up the aisle of books he was in and then rounded the corner and went down the next. "I'll pay for the window and the paint."

"Why?"

"I guess it would be good for business."

"Not for you," Barrow said with a snort.

"Why not?" Harry asked. "If your shop looks better it will draw people down the alley and into the other businesses I have shares in."

"You'd better have another think on that one boy," Barrow said. "I'll take your money for repairs and use it, don't get me wrong, but fixing up the shops won't save the businesses on the alley."

"Why not?"

"Since you've prettied up the orphanage and Tilly's, has anyone else come down the alley who wasn't already shopping here?"

Harry frowned. The alley was still as deserted as it was before, except for the kids at Peverell's and the people who stood in the shadowed alcoves watching.

"It'll take more than cosmetics to bring business back," Barrow said. "I sell my books by owl now because it's the only way I can make money. People are too afraid to come down Knocturn. They think everyone who comes down this alley is dark. The only reason Double Lane gets any business at all is because they have an entrance on the Muggle road."

"What do you think would bring business back then?" Harry asked.

Barrow snorted. "If I had the answers boy I would have brought business back already."

"Hm."

Harry turned to leave, but Barrow cleared his throat. "When can I expect my money for repairs?"

Harry turned to look at him. "When I hear you've hired three kids from the orphanage to help you."

Barrow grunted and Harry left. He hoped Podmore wouldn't jump on him about spending willy nilly. He also wondered if Silver would tell him he was making a bad decision spending money on a business he would get no profit from. It can't all be about profit though, Harry thought, can it?

* * *

Harry went back down Knocturn Alley near dark and leaned up against the wall outside Detect-A-Hex, hoping to catch Bellamy if he came near the entrance to Payne Alley. Harry kept his wand handy as several people came down Knocturn and turned up Payne and as he heard raucous laughter coming from down the alley, probably from Gobeldegooks. He didn't want to become a snack for a vampire while he was waiting.

People didn't seem to pay Harry any mind until several goblins came down Knockturn from Gringotts.

"This isn't the place for you," one of the goblins said. He didn't seem angry. It was more like he was warning Harry that he was in a dangerous place.

"I was hoping to talk to Bellamy," Harry said.

The goblin grunted and went down Payne Alley and out of sight with his friends. Almost half an hour passed and it was almost completely dark when a voice sounded next to Harry's ear, startling him. "Talk."

Harry turned and found Bellamy, and noticed that he hadn't stepped out of Payne Alley onto Knocturn. "I read the newsletters," Harry said. "Did you write them?"

"Some of the articles."

"They were good," Harry said. Bellamy stared at him, arms crossed.

"I wanted to thank you for getting money together for books for the kids at Peverell's. They really didn't have anything."

"I know."

The silence was awkward and the conversation not at all easy like it would have been with Ron or Justin. Harry wasn't sure if it was because Bellamy was older or if it was the look Bellamy had been giving him since they'd first met. It was a look like he wondered if Harry was going to pull out a wooden stake and drive it through his heart.

"Did you get enough money together to get the man out of jail in Harrogate?"

"Yes."

"What about the family at the Inn? Did they find another place to stay yet?"

"Why are you asking?" He seemed irritated.

Harry sighed. "I know I'm just a kid," he said, thinking maybe Bellamy just didn't want to deal with his silly questions, "but I care."

"They're not your kind," Bellamy said with a sneer. He uncrossed his arms and turned to walk back down Payne Alley, but Harry stepped forward into the alley after him and Bellamy stopped to stare at him.

"We're all just people," Harry said. "Maybe if my family believed that they wouldn't have treated me like they did just because I was a wizard. Maybe if everybody believed that things would be better."

"What do you mean because you're a wizard?"

"I live with my Muggle relatives. They hate me. That's why I ended up coming down Knocturn in the first place. I needed a barrister to help me get out of there."

Bellamy narrowed his eyes again.

"Yeah," Harry said, suddenly feeling lame. "I know it's not the same as what you go through. At least I still get to go to school."

Bellamy didn't say anything so Harry figured he was done talking to him. "Thanks anyway," Harry told him and walked away, hands in his pockets. He felt bad in a way he hadn't before. Things could have been a lot worse for him. He could have been stuck running from city to city if he was a vampire or werewolf. He could have everyone in the world looking down on him instead of just the Dursley's and Snape. For the first time since he'd appeared on the alley that summer, Harry wondered if he was doing the right thing taking Dumbledore to court. He didn't like living at the Dursleys, and he didn't get fed, but he did have a bed and a roof over his head and got to go to school.

As Harry walked back to the Leaky Cauldron in the dark, he remembered Snape telling him off for dragging the Headmaster to court. Harry continued to feel selfish until he got back into his room and Sirius jumped up on the bed to lay down at his feet. Harry ran his fingers through the dog's long hair.

"Am I selfish for wanting to live somewhere better?" Harry asked the dog. The dog just looked at him. Harry fell asleep sometime later with his arms wrapped around Siri, but woke up sweating not long after. Uncle Vernon had been angry about the way Harry had mowed the lawn and had hit Harry hard enough that he'd passed out. It couldn't be selfish to want to be safe he decided, and he told it to himself again several more times before Siri licked his face and Harry fell back to sleep.

* * *

Barrow had hired two seventh years and a sixth year from Peverell's to help him repair his shop. As soon as Harry got the news from Justin the next morning, he owled the construction foreman that had worked on the orphanage and asked him to send enough paint, brushes, and drop clothes to paint Barrow Books, and to come install a new window in the front. Harry also asked if he could pay for the supplies and work on the window in one week instead of on delivery. Harry didn't say it in the letter, but the rent wasn't due from his buildings for five more days, and until then the accounts were empty from all the work that had been done on the orphanage.

Harry went over to the orphanage to spend the day with Justin, and was pleased to find that it was only a few hours before the foreman showed up at Barrow books with twelve gallons of paint, painting supplies, and a new window, which he had installed with magic in under twenty minutes.

"I opened a charge account under your name with the firm," the foreman told Harry. "It's twenty Galleons for the window, and another seventy for the paint and supplies."

"Thank you," Harry said.

"Should we be expecting more business from you?" he asked.

Harry nodded. "I think so," he said.

The foreman looked up and down the alley and said, "This place needs a lot of work."

"I know. I don't even know where to start."

"What's the goal?"

"It's dark and dingy and half the buildings are falling apart," Harry said. "If it looks more inviting people might want to come down more often."

"Tilly's needs painted inside too," Justin said, and Harry looked at the Foreman.

"A couple gallons will do it," he said. "Want me to bring some by?" Harry nodded and the foreman said he'd add it to Harry's charge account with the firm. "What else?" the foreman asked.

"I really don't know. What would you suggest?"

The foreman gave another look and then looked at the front of the orphanage to admire his crew's work.

"Planters. Hanging flower baskets. New light boxes with light charms for the evenings. New paint on everything and repairs to the walls."

"How much will planters and hanging flower baskets run?"

"If we build them and buy the dirt and flowers, and you plant them all yourself, probably two hundred galleons."

Justin whistled.

"How many would that be?" Harry asked.

"A couple for every business. One on each side of every door. Harry pulled out a muggle pencil and paper out of his back pocket. He'd planned on sending a letter off to Ron as soon as Hedwig returned and had his letter ready, but decided to use it for scrap paper now. "Nothing for Double Lane right now," he said. "One for Luster Candles, two for Barrow Books, one for the sweet shop, one for Podmore's, two out front of Grimsby and Hull, one for the carts next to that and three out front of Borgin and Burkes..." Harry also decided on a few for in front of the businesses on the other side of the alley. "Fifteen," Harry said.

"A hundred galleons," the foreman said. "Because we'll have to get hardware to hang them on the walls and that accounts for labor too. It'll take my guys at least a day to get them all built and the hardware installed."

Harry nodded. "Ok. But I want to see what they're going to look like before you start."

The foreman told Harry he'd send him some photos to choose what kind of planters he wanted when he sent paint over for Tilly's shop and then left.

Harry went inside to tell Tilly her shop was going to get painted and to ask what color she wanted.

Tilly was delighted but also wary what it was going to cost her. "Just the price to pay Justin to paint," Harry said.

"Let's paint it a light color," Justin told her. "It'll make it look so much brighter and bigger in here."

Tilly nodded as she stared at the walls of her tiny shop. "Pink," she said. "With pale yellow, and brown accents."

Harry wasn't sure how that would look, but it was her business and he wanted her to be happy with it. Justin didn't hesitate to fake gag though. Tilly shot him a look and he shut his mouth quickly however and Harry tried to bite his tongue to keep from laughing.

* * *

Podmore had pulled Harry in off the alley several times on his trips up and down Knocturn over the last several days to get him ready for court. Unlike the initial hearing, Harry was going to be asked questions by the lawyers and judge this time around, and Podmore wanted to coach Harry on how to act and what to say.

"I got the report back from Wizarding Welfare. They're going to recommend that you not go back to the Dursleys. That doesn't mean our case is made though. I've seen it go the other way too many times. The other barrister just has to convince the judge that you're better off at the Dursleys than anywhere else and she'll ignore the recommendation by Wizarding Welfare."

Harry was thoroughly tired of answering questions about life at the Dursley's though, and he was sure Podmore was tired of asking him the same questions over and over and getting upset with him for the way he was deciding to answer. Harry was extremely happy to be released from Podmore's office around seven the evening after he'd made the deal with the Foreman to get paint for Tilly's shop and to find the Foreman and several of his crew out and installing black iron brackets to hang hanging flower baskets from.

"Your baskets are over there Harry," the foreman said, pointing to a pile of hanging flower baskets in front of an empty shop between Barrow Books and Tilly's. "Dirt and flowers too. You plant them and we'll come back tomorrow evening and put them up."

"Great," Harry said.

"They're self watering. Charm will last a couple years before it has to be renewed. You'll still have to plant them each spring though or get someone to do it."

Mrs. Ginger and Miss Ava had already agreed to help Harry plant the hanging baskets, but he wanted to start right away and get one up to surprise Tilly in the morning.

"Can you leave a ladder when you leave?" Harry asked, and the foreman gave him a thumbs up. Harry set to work moving dirt from a wheelbarrow that looked like it was Hagrid's size into one of the hanging baskets and then planting pink and yellow flowers in it to match the way Justin would paint the inside of the shop in the morning.

Harry looked over at Barrow's newly painted outside trim and thought about what color flowers would go with it. The foreman set a ladder on the ground next to him and bade him goodnight and then apparated away with his crew for the evening. Harry planted bright blue flowers and hanging green vines in two planters to hang up in front of Barrow's and then set the ladder up and carefully carried one planter up at a time to hang on either side of the door. The planters were heavy and Harry was wary of dropping them and destroying his hard work, or of falling, so he made sure to go slowly and be careful. When he was done there he moved the ladder to Tilly's shop and got her pink and yellow flowers and carefully started up the ladder. He'd just hung the planter on the black metal hook when he felt the ladder start to slip out from under him. Head snapping down to the feet of the ladder, his heart began to race as he saw the feet slipping further and further away from the building. Before he could even think to climb down, he and the ladder came down with a loud crash, and Harry found himself on his back, unable to catch his breath.

It had been a long time since Harry had gotten the wind knocked out of him, and never because he'd fallen from a height. Tears sprang to his eyes and he felt panicked that he couldn't get a breath in. Someone came to his side and knelt down, and for a moment he thought the foreman had come back, but he was surprised to find that it was Snape. He must have been there visiting the orphanage.

"Calm down Potter," Snape said lazily. "You only got the wind knocked out of you."

It seemed like minutes had passed when it was only seconds, but Harry was finally able to take a breath in, and he sucked in several greedy breaths as quickly as he could. Harry sat up and furiously swiped at his eyes to wipe the tears away, but they kept coming and he couldn't stop them. His hands were shaking too, but he was more focused on not letting Snape see him cry. Thankfully Snape seemed like he had no desire to see Harry cry and was looking elsewhere. At least he hadn't been called a baby like Dudley or his uncle would have called him.

"Are you hurt?" Snape asked after Harry's breathing evened out a little and his tears had slowed down. He was eyeing Harry's shaking hands.

Harry took stock of himself and said quietly, "I think I broke a rib." He rubbed his arm across his eyes again and tried to push himself up off the ground but found that his legs were like jelly.

Without a word Snape lifted him from behind under both arms and got him on his feet. "I will take you to St. Mungos." He took a step forward and Harry tried to follow, but his knees buckled, forcing Snape to grab him before he fell. Without letting go, Snape apparated them to the St. Mungo's waiting room, causing Harry to gasp sharply at the pain the apparation had caused him.

"I'm ok," Harry was quick to say, but Snape didn't say a word.

Severus watched silently for the next forty five minutes as Harry waited quietly in the waiting room, now tear free, and as Harry saw a healer and got his two broken ribs healed. He was curious to know how Potter would explain his broken ribs to the healer, but he'd simply told him he'd been stupid and hadn't made sure the ladder was set safely before he'd climbed up so he and the ladder had fallen. He'd never heard Potter put himself down before and didn't think he would ever do that or admit that he was at fault. Then again he had never thought Potter would put himself to work with manual labor like painting or planting flowers or hanging them up. He couldn't deny that Knocturn looked better than it had ever looked in his remembrance, but he also couldn't figure out why Potter was doing these things. They had to benefit him in some way, and he wanted to know how.

When the healer was done with Harry, Severus apparated him back to Diagonalley behind the Leaky Cauldron. It was dark out now and he wanted to ensure Potter was going to go up and go to bed instead of going back to hang more flowers on Knocturn.

"Thank you sir," Harry said quietly after they appeared behind the Leaky Cauldron. Severus stared down at him.

"Go to bed Potter," he said. He wanted to question the boy on his motives but so far that had gotten him no answers and he didn't want to keep the boy there in the darkness. He looked tired and Severus had been disturbed earlier to see the normally stoic boy cry and wanted to retreat back to his own quarters. Harry nodded and went inside, leaving Severus to his thoughts.

He'd seen the boy after fighting Quirrell, he'd seen him after fighting the basilisk, and he'd seen him break an arm playing Quidditch and get hit in the stomach several times with a bludger. He'd never seen him cry before during any of those incidents though or look so shaken as when he'd heard the crash and come out of the orphanage courtyard to see him and the ladder lying on the ground. For just a moment he'd forgotten he was dealing with The-Brat-Who-Lived and it confused the hell out of him.

Trying to push the boy from his mind, Severus apparated back to the Hogwarts boundary and tried to set his mind on other things, but Potter and his trial invaded his dreams and ensured he had a restless sleep.